The Finch LRT just might beat the Eglinton Crosstown to the finish line
People in northwest Toronto are hoping to ride the trains by Halloween
Transit lines in Toronto are an endless source of headlines and headaches. Now, thanks to a leak from the TTC, the Finch West LRT is also making waves for seemingly outpacing its cousin, the Eglinton Crosstown.
News broke this past Tuesday after a TTC employee leaked an internal memo on social media, confirming that the Finch West LRT will soon enter its requisite 30-day testing stage—remarkable and outrageous given that the line began construction in 2018, a full seven years after shovels hit the ground on Eglinton.
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The 18-stop line, which runs from Humber College to Finch West station, must prove it can run smoothly, safely and consistently for a month (formally called a revenue-service demonstration) before Metrolinx turns the keys over to TTC operators and opens the gates to riders. If all goes according to plan, the train could be operational by the end of October, providing students and the many diverse communities along the northwest corridor a speedier commute with easier access to local businesses and the larger transit network.
The Eglinton Crosstown, on the other hand, has faced crises at every stage: legal battles between Metrolinx and its consortium of builders, budget overruns, defective materials, out-of-date signalling software and cars that have degraded due to age. Metrolinx had planned to begin the Crosstown’s 30-day testing period this month but once again missed the deadline.
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The Eglinton project, in fairness, is far more complicated than its street-level counterpart on Finch. It has seven more stations, and about half of the line runs underground, through some of Toronto’s most congested neighbourhoods, like midtown and Forest Hill. It ran up against aging infrastructure and old caissons that were discovered only mid-dig. And then there are the underground interchange stations that connect with existing TTC subway stations, all of which required intense excavation. Turns out it’s not so easy to dig massive tunnels under the city (someone tell Doug Ford).
Lindsey King is a Toronto-based writer and editor whose work can be found in Toronto Life, Maclean’s, Canada’s 100 Best and more. She is interested in arts and culture, food and drink, architecture, design, and real estate stories
